Michael, Headmaster, looked over the results of the most recent FICAT test. Only two students out of the entire sample impressed him, one of whom was the student they had been looking for and had finally found. The additional is a bonus. He remained baffled as to why she had vanished for so long. Naturally, with so few people taking the test. He was surprised that schools had found her at all. At least they had discovered her and her brother, who they had never even heard of before.

"We should set up a visit to The Frozen North. We want to carry this young woman to Oakmont," he said, his eyes on his lead overseer of newcomers. " We might get a look at the boy while we are there. We must be prepared to hire him, possibly next year.

Jessie Trulin looked up at him and said, "If this new test is accurate, she shows a lot of potential."

“It is.” He gave her a smile.

"I've always been fascinated by the idea that a standardized test could identify children with the distinctive abilities we seek," He inwardly laughed at her lack of knowledge. She was unaware that the test did not locate them. It merely confirmed what they already suspected or knew. However, she wasn't ready to learn that.

After staring at her boss and default father for a moment, she asked, "Do you want me to start the background check?"

“No, we ought to have discovered her years ago. She must begin training because she is behind schedule. This time will be fine. In any case, the kid is in Gold country. Her parents ought to seize the opportunity to enroll her in an elite educational establishment in a civilized setting. She could tell that he was concerned by his thoughtful expression. She wasn't sure why.

"I don't know how to contrast this and the old test, yet it appears as though she might be one of the most grounded we've at any point seen," Jessie expressed, checking the young lady's outcomes out.

Yes, it does, which is why we must quickly enroll her in the program. My dear Jessie, her scores may indicate that she is even stronger than you. Maybe even the girl from Draper. Can you cope with that?” Superintendent Michael hung tight for her answer with a protective grin.

"We must train her to her full potential if we find a stronger student than me."

He said to her, "I love your devotion to the program," smiling.

Like the majority of the other new agents, you could have sent me out into the field, but you didn't. She looked up from the page and said, "Headmaster, I'll do my job to the best of my ability."

“Good. I was hoping to hear that. You have forever been my #1, and I question that will at any point change," he said, as yet grinning at her.

“Have you thought about how smart you were on the test? She might not only be strong, but she might also be very smart. With great interest in the girl's other scores, Jessie made the suggestion, "That's a combination we could use."

He said, "She should fit somewhere in the classes we offer, even if we have to put her in with the high school students," as if pondering that for a moment. As she grows up, we'll assess her potential and make any necessary adjustments. She's now more seasoned than she ought to be for entering the program, which is the reason we will swear off the ordinary conventions." He paused, his expression almost irritated, and it appeared as though he was lost in thought. Within the hour, we must take off. To prepare the aircraft, Mrs. Thornton should contact the airstrip. He suddenly came back to life and said, "I'll see you there in 30 minutes." He smiled as he replaced his irritation.

Jessie left his office door with a respectful nod and the not-so-subtle dismissal. She gave Mrs. Thornton the instructions to call the airstrip, but she was concerned about the girl's apparent high intelligence and the absence of a background check. The program that they had built for years could be damaged by one mistake. She hadn't, of course, helped build it. She had been a program participant herself.

She took a route she had never taken before as she made her way down the hallway to her office. She had ordered the background check, defying her superior's instructions. She needed to be sure because the results wouldn't come until well after the girl arrived, making them almost meaningless. There was some reason why she felt uneasy about this girl. She was unable to shake it, whether it was simply from not adhering to the established guidelines or something else entirely. Her concern was that her intuition was rarely wrong.

She would get the results within a week if everything went as planned. She thought they might be able to salvage the situation before it hurt them, should there be anything unusual about the girl's past. She wasn't worried much because the Oakmont program had survived several other discoveries that could have been fatal, which led to extensive background checks.

When the time came, she would be appropriately disciplined when The Headmaster discovered her disobedience. She would welcome the punishment if that were the case.

I woke up from a sound sleep when I heard my worst nightmare yell, "Shirl, Momma said to get up." I resented when my younger brother referred to me as Shirl because he seemed to know exactly how to frighten me.

He was a red headed devil. I thought he was small, like an imp, despite my mother's claim that he was the average size for a six-year-old boy. He had green and gold eyes that could cut through lead, and his hair was a fiery red. However, the fact that he did everything in his power to afflict me was the aspect of him that stood out the most.

Attempting to shake off the last pieces of rest, I extended for quite a while. It was incredible how good stretching felt. That sensation was brought on by what in the muscles? That might go on my list of things to do.

As I at long last hauled myself up, my feet sunk into the decent thick rug of my room floor. I've always liked how it felt between my toes. Not wanting to walk the entire way, I walked over and used my foot to close the bedroom door. Everyone else would call me lazy despite the fact that it was actually more effective. I put on a pair of jeans and my T-shirt from AHG summer camp without giving it much thought.

The only bright spot in the dark years since the voices began was American Heritage Girls. Despite the fact that I didn't quite fit in, the troop's girls always tried to include me, even though they weren't aware of the voices. They actually wanted me to be a part of the group, no matter how weird I was or what we were doing. Although they weren't particularly friendly, I wouldn't say I had any friends there.

Faith, in fact, might as well be a friend. We kind of got along in an oddball kind of way because she was a little odd herself. Even though I didn't use it, we both went by the name Shirley Faith, while hers was Faith or something else.

No one came any closer to me since I began to hear voices. It was as if I possessed some kind of aura that attracted everyone, like a field that attracted people. I was either insane or a monster, which I suppose I could be, according to everyone at school. I was able to hear what others were thinking, but no one else seemed to be able to, and some of them remembered me from first grade, when everything first started. I was able to focus better on school because I was isolated, and I loved to do well in school. Since I learned how to silence the voices, at least it had. Before that, I was unable to think in light of the consistent clamor of every other person's brain pounding me constantly.

Yes, even though I knew I was alone, my isolation did have some advantages. But because of that, I knew that on the government test that we took last week, I did better than anyone else, and I couldn't wait to see the results, especially the comparisons between students. I had always been in the top 99%, and I just knew it.

Due to the fact that the federal government had never administered a test at a local school before, Mom and Daddy were concerned about the exam. They protested the federal government's involvement in local affairs and stated, "The federal government has no right to interfere with local education." I thought they were correct about how the Constitution was written, but I still enjoyed taking the test.

Our principal, Mrs. Ivers, informed them that it was merely a government request, that it was not required, and that the school district would not use it for any purpose. Mrs. Ivers claims that it was voluntary and that the district agreed to it, but that only a small number of schools, including ours, did so. They could have declined, but I begged so much that they let me take it.

I sat down and began the horrible task of detangling the rat's nests in my hair by grabbing the hair brush from my vanity. Why was it necessary for me to have such difficult hair when other girls could effortlessly brush through it?

The difficult task of styling my hair took me much longer than I had anticipated. In addition to being unruly, it was an awful color. Who needed practically white hair? It might have been better if it were white, but it didn't look pink because it had a hint of red in it. Although my momma said it was strawberry blonde, I immediately recognized it as pink, as did every other student at the school. I was known as pinky or towhead when kids used to talk to me. Sometimes I kind of wished I could go back to those days. I was treated very nicely at the time by the school's principal. She left right after Momma and Daddy took me out of school, so I kind of remembered her.